Pornhub along with two of the other largest pornography websites in the world have sued the European Union over how they are classified under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

The DSA brands sites visited by more than 45 million Europeans each month as ‘very large online platforms’, with these sites subject to extra scrutiny, and breaches potentially leading to fines of up to 6 per cent of a company’s global turnover. These measures include obligations to monitor and fight illegal content, along with, in the case of adult entertainment platforms, implementing mechanisms to stop underage people from accessing their site.

Porn platforms that fit this category including the three parties that have sued the EU – Aylo-owned Pornhub, Xvideos and Stripchat – have until 20 April to hand in detailed plans about how they limit these risks.

Pornhub, which submitted its challenge to the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg on 1 March, and Stripchat, which submitted its one day earlier, have argued against their classification as very large online platforms. Pornhub and Xvideos have both asked the court to pause a rule requiring them to build a detailed public library of ads running on their platform.

In a statement to Politico, a spokesperson for Aylo said: “We believe the European Commission erred in its calculation of our user numbers. We will always comply with the law, including our obligations under the Digital Services Act, which we have been meticulously preparing for.”

A spokesperson for the European Commission told the outlet that it “stands fully behind its calculations of the user numbers of Pornhub and Stripchat,” and that advertising transparency was key for both businesses and customers.

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